May 31st: Blockupy Deportation Airport!

Call for action at Frankfurt Airport as part of “Blockupy Flooding!” on 31st May in Frankfurt.

Jingle

Frankfurt is one of the centres of the European crisis regime. One of Germany’s most popular exports ” austerity politics ” makes its way to Europe and the whole world from here. At the same time, Frankfurt is one of the crossroads of the EU”s racist border and deportation regime. The “Rhein-Main Airport”, a fundamental part of “Global City Frankfurt”, is Germany’s number one deportation airport and the pulsing heart of the deportation-network in Europe. From here, refugees and migrants are transported directly into poverty, discrimination, political prosecution and war. These concrete and compulsory measures are organised by the “German Federal Police” (formerly the Border Patrol of Germany), which praises itself for “intercultural competences”. The border agency “Frontex” coordinates those measures transnationally. In recent years, Frontex has become infamous for its deadly behaviour towards refugees; hundreds have lost their lives in the Mediterranean Sea and at other European external borders, ironically trying to find protection and a better life in Europe.

About one third of all deportations from Frankfurt are destined towards other Member States in East- and South-Europe, into so called “secure Third Countries”. This principle is made possible by the Dublin-II-regulation, which determines that the state, in which the refugee has first entered Europe, examines the application for asylum. Furthermore, European-wide organised information systems and deportation agencies are coordinated through the Dublin regulation. Within this framework, Germany (at the centre of Europe) can seal itself off from asylum seekers, while countries at the periphery of the EU lock down possible routes for refugees even more ” with technology that is mainly bought in Germany. The Troika programme ” deficit reduction, pressure to privatise, wage dumping ” further the social pauperisation taking place in those countries. The racist discourse against refugees, migrants and Roma is becoming more intense all over Europe. Capitalist exploitation and racist exclusion are two sides of the same coin of authoritarian politics, part of the same inhuman form of society.

Frankfurt Airport is a highly professional crossroad of a regime, which excludes those who are not of interest to the national state. Further, it is also the place where the contradictions of the capitalist system are displayed openly. At the same time as antiracist resistance against deportation, airport workers engage in their struggles: they protests against wage dumping, short-term-labour and the lack of a minimum wage. Those people, who live in poverty despite having found work in the country that benefits from the crisis, are resisting. Furthermore, ecological activists and anti-airport activists protest against a continuous worsening of the quality of life in the region, all due to the pursuit of profit by “Fraport AG” (the private transport company which operates Frankfurt Airport).

Let us connect these anti-crisis struggles with antiracist initiatives. Let us take our protest against the European crisis and deportation regime to Frankfurt Airport. Let us show solidarity, symbolically and practically.

Take part in the blockade of the European Central Bank earlier that day! Afterwards, come to our demonstration at Frankfurt Airport!

What is Blockupy?

Blockupy is part of a European wide network of various social movement activists, altermondialists, migrants, jobless, precarious and industry workers, party members and unionists and many more from many different European countries from Italy, Spain, Greece, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, France, Germany and other countries. Together we want to connect our struggles and powers beyond nation-state lines. Together we want to create a common European movement, united in diversity, which can break the rule of austerity and will start to build democracy and solidarity from below. Blockupy and the actions in Frankfurt are only one step along this way.
As a transnational movement we oppose explicitly each and every attempt for racist, nationalist or antisemitic divisions as well as conspiracy theories to interpret the world.
The German Blockupy alliance is supported by activists from various emancipatory groups and organizations; among others, the interventionist Left, Attac, Occupy Frankfurt, trade unions, youth and student organizations, the forum of the unemployed in Germay (Erwerbslosenforum), the party DIE LINKE, the network peace cooperative (Netzwerk Friedenskooperative) and the alliance umsGanze...